New Arrest Warrant on Suspicion of Violations of the Foreign Trade and Payments Act

Year of issue 2023
Date 29.08.2023

Yesterday (28 August 2023), the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office obtained an arrest warrant against

the German-Russian national Waldemar W.

from the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice.

Yesterday, the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice read out the arrest warrant to the suspect and ordered that he remain in pre-trial detention.

Waldemar W. is strongly suspected of several counts of commercial violations of the Foreign Trade and Payments Act (section 18 para. 1], para. 7 no. 2 of the Foreign Trade and Payments Act in conjunction with the relevant EU provisions).

In essence, the arrest warrant sets out the following facts:

Waldemar W. is the founder and managing director of two Saarland-based companies specialising in the international trade of electronic components. On 26 occasions between January 2020 and March 2023, he exported electronic components to a company in Russia producing military hardware and accessory parts, among them the ‘Orlan-10’ drone currently used by Russian forces in Ukraine. The components supplied by the suspect are commonly used in this type of drone and sanctioned by the Council Regulation (EU) No. 833/2014 concerning restrictive measures in view of Russia's actions destabilising the situation in Ukraine.

For sanction-evasion purposes, Waldemar W. usually imported the electronic components into Germany from abroad and then proceeded to export them – partially via a Baden-Württemberg-based business under his control – to Russia. Initially, the goods were shipped to two civilian front companies in Russia. Following coordination with the suspect, they ensured the transfer to the military manufacturer. After the outbreak of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, Waldemar W. started resorting to intermediary recipients in third countries, inter alia, Dubai and Lithuania, to ship the goods to Russia.

The total value of the illegally exported components amounts to approximately € 715,000.

The arrest warrant issued by the Investigating Judge at the Federal Court of Justice supersedes the arrest warrant of 8 March 2023 of the Mannheim District Court, on the basis of which the suspect had already been held in pre-trial detention since 9 March 2023. On 20 March 2023, the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office took over the prosecution of the proceedings due to the particular significance of the case (section 120 [2] Sentence 1 No. 4 of the Courts Constitution Act).

The Cologne-based German Customs Investigation Bureau was in charge of the comprehensive police investigation.